L.A. County Paying $3.75M in Deputies’ Killing of Teen

The family of Anthony Weber, a Los Angeles teenager who was shot and killed last year after being chased by two sheriff’s deputies, will get $3.75 million in a settlement from Los Angeles County, the New York Times reports. The death did not lead to criminal charges against the deputies. In a lawsuit, family members alleged that they violated the civil rights of an unarmed teenager. The Sheriff’s Department said Weber, 16, had a handgun, even though no weapon was found at the scene. More than a year after the Feb. 4, 2018, shooting made national headlines, family members disagree with officials about virtually every aspect of the episode and the investigation, said Anthony’s father, John Weber. “I think there’s a cover-up here,” he said after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the settlement. “That’s just the way they do business.” In the case, the deputies responded to a 911 call about a black man in a black T-shirt who had pointed a handgun at the caller, who was passing by in a vehicle.

The shooting was among several raising questions about how law enforcement officers treat people of color — especially in Los Angeles, a city with a fraught history of police brutality, including the 1991 beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers. Gangs are still common in the neighborhood of South Los Angeles where Weber was killed. Crime rates have improved since the 1980s and 1990s, when the crack epidemic and street violence claimed or devastated many lives. In Los Angeles, settlements similar to the ones reached by Weber’s family include $1.5 million received by the family of Ezell Ford, an unarmed black man who was fatally shot in 2014, and a $4 million settlement with the family of Brendon Glenn, an unarmed homeless man who was shot and killed in 2015.

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